Cataclysm Introduction Raiding Guide

I had written this guide about a week prior to Cataclysm to help my own guild out in progression, so instead of keeping it stuffed up in my own guild's forums I'll go ahead and enter it into this contest!

**Remember to use CTRL+F to search for the encounter you may be looking for!

Cataclysm Raid Strategies

Throne of Four Winds

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Conclave of WindNormal Mode

The Basics:

There are three minibosses to be dealt with and they all must die at the same time, each miniboss has it's own elemental forte
and each of it's mechanics have something to do with that element. This is key knowledge for optimizing which classes and roles you
want at each boss.

The entirety of the encounter is on three different platforms, you can move between the platforms by simply running into wind
tunnels that are located on the sides of each of the platforms. It is vital that the entire raid know where these wind tunnels are, because
they will have to move to each of the minibosses during the entire encounter.

Mechanics:

The elementals are Anshal, Nezir, and Rohash. Anshal is Nature, Nezir is Frost, and Rohash is Wind. The raid's tanks will
need to be focusing on the Nature and Frost elementals because the Wind elemental deals damage to melee and needs to be tanked by
ranged, particularly a single healer on 10-Man and a single ranged DPS/healer team on 25-Man.

The consequences for just not tanking one of them are large and raid-wiping quality. If there is not a tank for Wind, the raid
recieves a permanent silence, if Frost is not tanked the raid recieves a -500% haste debuff, and if Nature is not tanked the raid recieves a
-100% healing debuff.

Each elemental has an energy bar that is maxed out at 90, once the energy reaches full each of the elementals does their own
special ability:

Wind: HURRICANE - Creates a huge vortex of wind, catching all nearby enemies and launching them into the air.
Anyone caught by the vortex will take 2500 Nature damage per second for 15 sec. At the end of this effect, affected targets will be
dropped out of the air, resulting in additional falling damage. Unlimited range. Instant.

- Before reaching max energy, he periodically summons three tornados that move around the platform, applies knockbacks and massive damage.

Nature: ZEPHYR - Heals all allies within 90 yards for 25000 health per second. In addition, these targets will also
gain 15% increased damage for 15 sec. This effect stacks. Instant.

- Also casts an efflorescense type ability called Soothing Breeze every now and then on the ground directly under him.

Frost: SLEET STORM - Deals 28500 to 31500 Frost damage per second to all targets within 90 yards. This damage is
divided among all targets. Lasts 15 sec. Unlimited range. Instant.

- He also places Ice Patches on the ground that deal damage to you and slowly debuffs you to stand still in it.

- Casts Wind Chill periodically, which is a stacking debuff placed on anyone on the platform that deals periodic damage and increases frost damage taken by 10% per stack.

- Also periodically casts Permafrost, which is a conical frost attack that cannot be avoided by anyone in front of him.

The Strategy:

One tank needs to be placed at each the Frost and Nature platforms, depending on raid size one or two healers need to be
assigned to each tank. One ranged DPS/healer team needs to be at the Wind platform during the entire encounter and doesn't move off that
platform for the entire fight.

The melee DPS and the Non-Wind Ranged DPS start at the Frost boss and bring him down to approximately 15%, but need to
switch to the Nature platform every time adds spawn at that platform and kill the adds immediately because not only do they silence, but
they hurt really bad and get healed by the Nature boss's special if they stay alive for too long. After the Frost boss hits 15% HP the Melee
and Non-Wind Ranged DPS head to the Nature boss and bring him down to 15%, because the DPS are already on the Nature platform
dealing with the spawned adds should be very easy, however they still need to be dealt with.

After the Frost and Nature boss are at 15% HP the Wind boss that has been DPS'd by one or two ranged DPS for the entire
fight should be close to dead. The remaining DPS should split on the Frost and Nature bosses and then with coordination kill all three at the
same time.

There are three phases to the fight, in the first two phases three mechanics are the same and 2 mechanics change. First phase is
in process until 75% HP then phase two occurs, then at 30% HP Al'Akir transitions into phase three, continuing one mechanic from the
first phase.

Mechanics:

Ice Storm - A blizzard that leaves a trail of frost on the ground, both the blizzard and the trail of frost deals damage and slows you.

Static Shock - An interrupt, deals mediocre damage but interrupts for 5 seconds if you get caught casting.

Electrocute - A nature DoT that is casted on a ranged target, that target must run into melee range to dispell it, there is no other way.

Wind Burst - A knockback, deals about 30k damage.

Squall Line - Similar to sartharion's flame wall, you must find an opening in the squall and avoid it.

Acid Rain - DoT that starts at 500 damage per second to the raid then increases by 500 every 15 seconds.

Feedback - Damage done to Al'Akir is increased by 10% per stack if you kill a Stormling

Lightning Clouds - Summons clouds at the altitude of a random target and explodes 5 seconds later dealing about 30k damage to anyone of the same altitude.

The Strategy:

When phase one begins the melee are positioned behind Al'Akir, the tanks are in front of him, and the ranged are standing at a
halfway mark that isn't close to the outer edge to buffer the knockback. In this phase Al'Akir will summon Ice Storm which with no
excuses should be stood in and he will cast electrocute on a random ranged target. If a ranged recieves electrocute, they need to run into
melee range of the boss. Also in phase one, Al'Akir will periodically Static Shock, interrupting casters for five seconds and summon a
Squall Line. Squall line is the Cataclysm version of a Flame Wall, which means every raid member including the melee need to be
situationally aware for phases 1 and 2.

Phase two begins at 75%, Al'Akir will continue with the interrupts, electrocutes, and squall lines, but you won't have to deal
with Ice Storms or knockbacks anymore. Instead of those two, he has Acid Rain and spawns little adds called Stormlings. Acid Rain is
raid damage that cannot be stopped and just needs to be healed through. Stormling adds, however, need to be off-tanked. When you kill a
Stormling Al'Akir recieves a debuff for 20 seconds that increases damage done to him by 10% and the debuff stacks for every Stormling
the raid kills.

Here is a video, there is no need to watch it, but if you are new to Cataclysm and don't know what I mean by Flame Wall, skip to about
2:05 and watch until about 3:00. In that time interval you see two dodges of the Squall Line:

This encounter is a two phase DPS race with some interesting mechanics. The main boss can be tanked and dragged pretty much
anywhere in the room, so if the tank needs to move the boss be ready for it. There will be a flying Proto-Drake in the back of the room
that is un-targetable and does not move throughout the entire encounter, it will flame breath the raid periodically for minimal raid damage.

There are multiple minibosses that are chained down around the outskirts of the room, one of them will be interactive (random each
week) and will help you fight Halfus by giving you some sort of buff and Halfus a debuff. Halfus will bind himself to whatever minion is
helping you though and you will have to kill the miniboss that was helping you and must deal with both Halfus' damage and his newfound
minion that has a particular ability, again, it's random. However, when you kill the enslaved minion, Halfus will take 50% more damage.

Mechanics:

The mechanics for halfus are fairly simple:

Furious Roar - Deals 10k damage and knocks the raid down, including the tank. 1.5sec cast (assuming it can be interrupted)

Berserk - Increases damage dealt by 500%. This is his enrage, everyone is approximating the timer to be about 8 minutes.

The Strategy:

At the pull, Halfus will immediately bind to the first miniboss and the raid must kill it immediately. So the first 30-45 seconds of the fight
are with no DPS to the boss whatsoever. After the first minion is dead, the raid needs to DPS Halfus because he is now taking 50% more
damage and the tank needs to move Halfus across the room to the emerald whelp cage which is located about where the raid pulls, if the
tank neglects to do this and the whelps happen to be the second random miniboss, then the whelps will destroy the healers and ranged
DPS before the tank gets a chance to pick them up.

Once the second miniboss is bound to Halfus, stop all DPS on Halfus and kill the miniboss. After the miniboss is dead, Halfus will now
be taking 100% extra damage. Once Halfus is at 25% HP he will go into phase 2.

Phase 2 is similar to Lord Marrowgar's bonestorm ability, only Halfus will keep spinning until he is killed and everytime someone gets
hit, it places a -10% healing debuff on them. Phase two is the true DPS race here and it would be a good time to use Heroism/Time Warp,
because if you don't kill Halfus fast enough everyone in the raid will hit 10 stacks of the healing debuff or he will enter Berserk mode and
kill everyone anyways.

Here is a nice brief 7 minute explanation of the fight. Or if you don't know who Lord Marrowgar is and want to know what the phase 2
ability looks like, skip to 5:12 and watch from there:

You start the encounter fighting Valiona while Theralion hovers above the raid shooting at you. At some point during the encounter,
Theralion switches places with Valiona and has a couple different abilities than her too, however both of their health bars are shared so
any damage you deal to one is dealt to the other. This fight is very heavy on mechanics and will take execution in order to complete, it
isn't so much of a pushover as Halfus is, so make sure you are completely situationally aware during this encounter. Just remember that
this encounter isn't necessarily a DPS race against an enrage timer or a healing check, it is a raid awareness test.

Mechanics:

Blackout - Lasts 15 seconds, when it expires or is dispelled it deals 350k damage and is split among anyone standing within 8yds

Engulfing Magic - Deals damage to nearby enemies (10yds?) equal to the amount of healing or damage you do.

Dazzling Destruction - Deals 80k damage every second, stand in it for 4 seconds you get sent to the Twilight Realm (it's bad)

Twilight Blast - Hits random people in raid and deals about 30k damage to players standing within 8yds of the person who got hit by it. 6 second cast.

Fabulous Flames - Explosion that deals mediocre damage, about 25k.

The Strategy:

On the pull all the ranged should be spread out, because Theralion will be casting Twilight Blasts on random people and too much raid
damage is bad. Almost instantly after pulling Valiona someone in the raid will get Blackout, this means the raid has 15 seconds to stack
on the person or else that raid member dies, a mechanic similar to the green ooze on Professor Putricide. Blackout can be dispelled, but
only if the raid is quick enough to stack because it doesn't need to be dispelled prematurely or else the person who has the debuff dies.
After the Blackout debuff drops, immediately spread back out.

Theralion does another ability while hovering above the raid called Dazzling Destruction, which puts humongous void zones on the
ground that deal tremendous amounts of damage to anyone standing in it and if someone stands in it without dying for 4 seconds they get
teleported to the Twilight Realm. The Twilight Realm is a very bad place to be, if you get teleported there, you must play frogger with
blue crystal orbs that will kill you on touch to a portal that brings you back out of the realm. So don't get teleported there in the first place
and stay out of the void zone.

At 75% Valiona will swap places with Theralion. Valiona's most important ability while she is airbourne is the Twilight Meteorite. They
are similar to old school Ahn'Qiraj meteors and split damage to anyone standing under them. She takes 6 seconds to cast Twilight
Meteorite, so you must hurry and stack on the person who has it if you are even somewhat near them. While in the air, Valiona will
also deep breath 1/3 of the room. The only way to know which 1/3 she is deep breathing is to look up and see where she is positioning
herself.

Also, Engulfing Magic occurs periodically throughout the entire encounter. When you have Engulfing Magic, move out of the raid
to a remote spot where you can still heal or DPS unless you are melee. Always be aware of where you are so you can easily move away
from the raid.

This is basically the fight, at 50% Theralion will swap with Valiona and then at 25% Valiona will swap with Theralion. Heroism/Time
Warp is best used on the pull or whenever most preferred.

*I'm refering to the bosses as Fire, Water, Earth, and Wind. So when I say, "melee should be on Fire" I don't mean the hot flaming stuff, I mean the Fire boss.

This is a three phase encounter where you have to deal with two separate councilmen in each of the first two phases. In the first phase,
you have to deal with the Water and Fire councilmen. Water has a melee-range AoE and puts debuffs onto the raid. Fire has a knockback
and leaves trails of fire to the person he knocks back. In phase two, Wind and Earth councilmen come out and instead of small mechanics
like Fire and Water, they pretty much blow up the entire room and if you don't have the correct buff in order to immune yourself from their
abilities, you die. Phase three is a DPS race, all four elements combine to create an Elementium Monstrosity and while doing massive
AoE damage to the raid, you have to kill the boss before your healers start running out of mana.

Mechanics:

Water:
Waterlogged - A 60 second duration debuff that can only be removed by running into the Fire councilmen's trail of fire.

Frozen - If you fail to remove Waterlogged, you get frozen in place dealing 40k damage every 2 seconds.

Glaciate - Deals massive frost damage to nearby enemies, if this AoE ability hits anyone that is Waterlogged it will instantly freeze them.

When starting the fight, each tank will pull Fire and Water and tank them separately. Generally, melee need to be on Fire to interrupt casts
and also so they don't get hit by Glaciate. Fire guy will periodically jump back and forth between a member in the raid and the tank that
has aggro on Fire, leaving a trail of fire between the two.

Anyone in the raid that doesn't have aggro on the bosses are susceptible to Waterlogged. If you happen to get Waterlogged, you have 60
seconds to clear it by running into a fire trail. Also, if you have Waterlogged and get hit by the Glaciate AoE you get instantly frozen. So,
it is in your best interest to clear the Waterlogged debuff as soon as possible once you get it.

Both bosses should be evenly DPS'd and made sure of that both hit 30% HP at the same time, this is highly important come phase three.
Once either of the Water or Fire bosses hit 30%, phase two occurs. In phase two, Wind and Earth are also separately tanked and DPS
should again be even all the way down to 30%. Because of Chain Lightning and Lightning Rod, it is in the melee's best interest to be on
the Earth boss during this phase.

Phase two is very similar to the Twin Valkyrs, in which you must have a certain buff to negate a boss' ability. You must have the Gravity
Well's buff to negate a Thundershock and you must have a Tornado Vortex's buff to negate a Quake. The order of special abilities will always begin with a Quake then transition into a Thundershock and then back to a Quake. Because we know this, when the phase
begins everyone in the raid should run into a Tornado Vortex. Because we don't have any good timers, make sure you buffer your time
wisely between special abilities by getting the opposite buff once a special ability has gone off (Ex. Once Quake is over, immediately run
into a Gravity Well so you are safe).

Phase three is a huge DPS race, all Heroisms/Time Warps and major DPS cooldowns should be saved for this phase. The Elementium
Monstrosity hits hard and deals massive raid damage so if the DPS take too long the healers will be quick to run out of mana and the raid
will wipe.

In this encounter, raid members recieve another UI feature at the bottom of their screen that tracks how corrupted their blood is. I will list the
effects of Corrupted Blood in the "Mechanics" section. Cho'gall has two phases. In the first phase adds will spawn periodically in certain parts
of the room and should be killed immediately. Phase two begins at 25% HP and the room will phase into a dark realm with a bunch of small
adds, these need to be killed immediately entering phase two. Cho'gall does increased damage while in phase two as well as increases
everyone's Corrupted Blood at a constant rate. Heroism/Time Warp are best used in phase two.

Spilled Blood of the Old God - After you kill an Adherent it puts this defile-looking graphic on the ground that deals 15k damage per second and
increases Corrupted Blood.

Festering Blood - Causes any, dead or alive, Corrupted Adherent to start casting Sprayed Corruption. If the Adherent is dead, it will summon
small "Living Blood of the Old God" oozes to from it's body.

In order to keep everyone's Corrupted Blood low, you need to stay away from any of Cho'gall's abilities and his add's abilities. The only adds
during this entire fight that do not cause an increase for your Corrupted Blood is the Oozes that spawn from the corpses of festering adherents.

The main tank in this fight will need to move to each location where Cho'gall will summon his Adherents from so the Melee can easily swap and
kill the Adherents quickly before Cho'gall casts Fester Blood. When Cho'gall casts Fester Blood, the ranged must take care of any Oozes that
spawn from corpses of Adherents and melee must move away from any living Adherents to avoid the Sprayed Corruption. As soon as the
Adherent is killed, the main tank should pull Cho'gall away from its corpse and be ready to move him to the next portal where another adherent
will spawn.

From the very beginning of the encounter Cho'gall will cast Conversion which mind controls a player and makes them channel a damage buff to
Cho'gall. You must interrupt the player immediately by anything: Stun, Kick, Pummel, Counterspell, Shock.

The adds in this fight are a main priority. The Adherents do a Shadow Crash ability that shouldn't be stood in, and it acutally shows you on the
ground where it will hit so it is very easy to move out of. Make sure that no raid members are standing anywhere near any existing Adherents
when Cho'gall casts Fester Blood as well. The ranged will have to take care of Oozes, but the melee need to especially watch where they are
positioned.

Once Cho'gall hits 25% HP he will transition into phase two. The room will enter a shadow realm with a bunch of little adds called Darkened
Creations in it. Make these adds a priority in Phase Two, kill them all then pop Heroism/Time Warp to finish Cho'gall. Heroism/Time Warp can
be used to clear out the adds by discretion.

Here is <Paragon>'s kill video for reference, no need to watch it but if you are unclear on mechanics it has PoV swaps to clearly show all of them:

Omnitron Defense System is made up of four different minibosses. These minibosses will activate one at a time in a random order, even the first
one that is activated is random. Soon after the pull, a second random miniboss will activate and will shield the current activated one with a
random shield that does bad things to the raid when it is hit. Only two minibosses will be activated at a time, so when the third miniboss
activates a current one that is activated will shut down. All the healthpools are shared so there is no need to split damage or make sure all of
them die at the same time.

Mechanics:

Arcanotron:
Power Generator - Summons a generator (looks like a blue void) under a random friendly target, increases damage by 50% when stood in.

Arcane Annihilator - Inflicts about 50k damage to a random target.

Electron:
Lightning Conductor - Whoever is inflicted with this debuff causes damage to nearby raid members every 2 seconds.

Magmatron:
Incineration Security Measure - AoE to the raid that deals 15k damage per second for 4 seconds.

Acquiring Target - A 4 second cast that will acquire a target to use his flamethrower on.

Toxitron:
Chemical Bomb - Fires a bomb that creates a chemical cloud on top of the target

Poison Protocol - Creates a Poison Bomb every 3 sec that will explode after coming in contact with its target

The Strategy:

One tank pulls the first miniboss and the raid should deal with the mechanics as normal. Right as the second miniboss appears and places a
shield on the current existing miniboss the raid should swap to the new miniboss immediately. Now that two of the four minibosses are up,
remember that you must deal with both of their mechanics. Periodically, the shielded miniboss will shutdown and a new miniboss will activate.
Tanks that are tanking the miniboss that is not being DPS'd by the raid should be ready to pick up the next activated miniboss.

Thats it for the Omnitron Defense System, it has a long enrage and is a one phase fight.

Magmaw is a single phase encounter like Omnitron Defense System and is the optional first boss in the dungeon. He does not move during the
duration of the encounter and does several abilities dealing AoE damage to the raid.

Pillar of Flame - A huge fireball that hits a random ranged target for 20k and sunders the ground, don't stand in it.

The Strategy:

Because Magmaw does not move from where he is during the entire encounter and he has a frontal cone ability, the main tank should be
positioned to one side of Magmaw while the melee DPS are positioned on the opposite side. He periodically spits on someone and after that
debuff wears off Lava Parasites spawn. The offtank's job is to pick up these Parasites immediately. He also has a mechanic that erupts one half
of the room, forcing the ranged in the raid to swap sides of the room.

Periodically, Magmaw will bend over onto the platform that the raid is standing on and three DPS in the raid must jump on top of him, use
the "hook" ability and target the spike that is on the ground. This will hook Magmaw to the ground for a short period of time and he will
take extra damage while he is hooked down as well.

This fight is considered difficult because of the raid taking so much damage it wears the healer's mana pools down and they become oom like
halfway through the fight, so healers have to manage their mana wisely on this encounter because that is what is killing many other raids from
what I have been reading.

Atramedes is a blind dragon which means he can only track raid members by sound, and all of his mechanics reflect this. Every member in the
raid during the encounter gets a new UI feature at the bottom of their screen that tracks how much sound you are making, when you reach 100%
sound you die.

Mechanics:

Sonic Breath - Inflicts 20k Fire damage to enemies in its path and causes them to be heard

Searing Flame - Inflicts 15k damage per second and increases fire damage taken by 25% every time it hits.

There are 8 gongs set up around the room and every time you use one it resets everyone's sound back to 0%, stuns Atramedes, and gets
destroyed. In a proper fight, a gong should only be used once in a ground phase then once again in an air phase. You use a gong in a
ground phase to interrupt Searing Flame, because if he manages to get Searing Flame casted it will wipe the raid. You use a gong in an air phase
because he has a Kologarn type ability that chases the person in the raid with the highest sound with a beam of fire, only it will increasingly
accelerate if that person gets hit by the beam. So in order to assure that the beam will never accelerate, you use a gong to impair Atramedes'
vision. Gong usage is the most important part of the fight and there should be a dedicated gong user.

Sonic Breath is an ability that the tanks especially need to watch out for. It has a 3 second cast and it is very easy to avoid. If you happen to get
caught by Sonic breath, Atramedes will know exactly where you are and start following you around during the duration of his breath increasing
your sound rapidly and anyone else's sound that you happen to get caught in the breath. Move fast once he starts casting it to assure you don't
get hit, because he casts it at your location and not at you.

Watching your sound is also very important, if you walk into fire that Atramedes places on the ground or stand in Sonar Bombs then you will
gain sound faster than someone who isn't. Don't freak out if you are close to 100% sound, because on the next Searing Flame or air phase a gong
will be used and your sound will reset back to 0%.

To start the fight you have to talk with Finkle Einhorn that is in a cage behind the boss. He will activate a Bile-O-Tron that pats around the raid
giving everyone the Finkle's Mixture debuff. Because of this, the raid must never dip below 10k health.

During Chimaeron's Feud, Bile-O-Tron goes offline and no longer gives the Finkle's Mixture debuff. This means the raid must stack on top of the
tanks to split the damage from Caustic Slime. After Feud is over, Bile-O-Tron will activate once again giving everyone the Finkle's Mixture
debuff and the raid must spread out immediately.

The tanks must coordinate taunts very well during this encounter. After three Break debuffs, the second tank must taunt, then the main tank must
taunt him back once the second tank reaches three Break debuffs. This must go on during the entire encounter. When Chimaeron reaches 20% HP
he will be immune to taunt for the remainder of the fight. So the tanks must coordinate where a tank that doesn't have any break debuffs taunts
immediately before Chimaeron hits 20%.

After 20%, everyone in the room is affected by Mortality including the boss. Heroism/Time Warp must be saved for this phase because all heals
are negated and he still continues all of his mechanics.

Here is a great video that explains the fight if you feel that you still do not understand, good videos are few and far between:

Maloriak has two phases, in the first phase he has three separate miniphases that are prior to 20% HP: blue, red, and green. He starts out with
either Blue or Red, then goes into the miniphase for the one he didn't choose (e.g. starts blue then goes red or starts red then goes blue). After
the first two miniphases are over, he goes into the green miniphase that wipes all of the buffs that his adds get and applies a debuff to them that
makes them take increased damage. Maloriak has a 6 minute enrage timer so this fight needs to be very DPS intensive and the adds must be dealt
with strategically.

Maloriak has 20 adds held up in vials on the sides of the room, 18 small adds and 2 big ones. He will periodically cast a summoning spell that
can be interrupted, but is up for discretion. This spell will summon 3 small abberations until he doesn't have any left, then he will summon each
big abberation. Once Maloriak reaches 20% HP all of the remaining abberations are summoned instantly. All of the adds have a buff that
increases their HP and damage the deal by a percentage based on how many of their other little buddy adds are near them.So if a tank has 9
adds on them each of the adds individually hits for larger amounts rather than if a tank had fewer on them. Maloriak can also get the buff from the
adds, so they should be tanked away from Maloriak at all times.

Mechanics:

Blue MiniPhase:
Flash Freeze - Deals 70k Frost damage to all targets within 5 yards of the target and encasing them in solid ice for 30 sec. When the ice is
broken, the ice deals an additional 60k Frost damage to all targets 5 yards around that target, breaking all ice in that area as well.

Green MiniPhase:
Maloriak removes all buffs from his adds and increases the damage dealt to everything in the room including himself, the raid, and the adds.

Phase 2:
Magma Jets - Releases a stream of small fire fissures towards the enemy with highest threat. These fissures deal 40k Fire damage to all enemies
within 3 yards. In addition, the fissures leave behind a persistent burning effect which deals 20k Fire damage to all nearby enemies.

All Phases:
Arcane Storm - Deals 15k Arcane damage per second to all enemies. Lasts 6 sec. 3 second cast. Can be interrupted.

Remedy - Heals the caster for 25000 health and generates 2000 mana per second. The amount healed by this effect increases by 25000 per
second. Lasts 10 sec. Can be stolen or dispelled.

The Strategy:

If Maloriak is in red miniphase, all of the raid must stack on top of the tank to split the damage of Scorching Blast. In blue miniphase, the raid
must spread out and when someone gets Flash Frozen they need to immediately get topped off then broken out of the ice block (very trivial ice
block, it has 5k HP). In green miniphase, all of the adds must be immediately AoE'd down because they will all take 100% extra damage.
Maloriak should rotate through his miniphases twice before going into phase two, which means the raid has two green miniphases to kill all of the
small adds. The two big adds should just be offtanked in phase 2, I'll explain more later in the strat.

During the entire encounter, Maloriak will cast two abilities that need to be dealt with immediately. One is Arcane Storm, every time it is casted
it needs to be interrupted with no excuses. The other is Remedy, it can be dispelled or purged off of Maloriak, but if a Mage spellsteals it the
healers won't have to worry about healing the mage for the duration of it, saving mana.

There needs to be three tanks for this fight to go smoothly at the moment, even on 10 man. One tank for Maloriak, and two
off-tanks for the adds, because the current ilvl 346 heroic geared tank cannot withstand the damage of 12 aberrations (adds). Maloriak
will cast 4 summons before the first green phase, one offtank will tank 6 of the aberrations and the other will tank the remaining 6. After
the first green miniphase, the extra offtank can DPS Maloriak for the rest of the fight while the other offtank takes the remaining 6 adds before
the second green miniphase. The offtank that takes the last 6 adds will also tank the 2 big abberations that get summoned at 20% HP. Especially
make sure in this phase that the big adds get tanked away from the boss because they will still give the boss the add buff. It will be difficult
because Maloriak will be kited around the room in phase 2.

Phase 2 happens at 20% HP, in this phase Maloriak will cast Magma Jets. This means he should be faced away from the raid at all times, then
after he casts it he should be moved so the tank doesn't take extra damage. Make sure Maloriak is always facing away from the raid though,
because if he happens to cast Magma Jets and the flames trail through the ranged DPS and healers, the raid will wipe. Maloriak will also
summon frost orbs that need to be avoided. Time Warp/Heroism should be used this phase.

This fight is quite tricky, if you feel you still do not understand, for clarification watch TotalBiscuit's kill video and commentary here:

You engage Onyxia, then shortly after Nefarian lands and should be picked up by a second tank immediately. Onyxia is killed and never seen
again throughout the entire fight, so you only have to deal with her mechanics until you kill her. While killing Onyxia, you have to deal with
Nefarian's phase one mechanics from when he lands until you push him into phase two as well. When Onyxia dies, Nefarian goes into phase 2.
Phase 3 happens at 60% HP.

There are adds in phases 1 and 3 of the encounter that need to be kited by a ranged or a third tank. These adds shouldn't be killed.

Mechanics:

Children of Deathwing - Nefarian and Onyxia attack 100% faster when they are stacked together.

In phase one, ranged and melee should be putting all DPS into Onyxia. When Nefarian lands, all ranged DPS should switch to Nefarian and
melee should stay on Onyxia. Once Onyxia hits about 3-5% HP all raid members should switch to Nefarian and let DoTs kill Onyxia. When
Onyxia dies, Nefarian will go into phase 2.

Nefarian takes flight, and the room fills with lava leaving only three columns to stand on. Chromatic Protoypes are on top of these columns and
melee should be split up between these to kill them. Chromatic Prototypes should be killed at the same time, before Nefarian hits 60% HP
because that is when he lands and goes into phase 3. In phase 2, ranged should stay on Nefarian and melee should stay on the Prototypes.
Ranged DPS must be careful here not to push Nefarian below 60% before melee kill the Prototypes, because if any Chromatic
Prototypes are left alive in phase 3 Nefarian will instantly wipe the raid with a room-wide lightning ability.

Phase 3 lasts for 60% of his HP and Nefarian has a very generous enrage timer. Not sure exactly what it is, but <Paragon> took 10 minutes to
kill it and they didn't hit the enrage. The add-kiting tank should be taking a bit more damage with extra adds in this phase, but other
than that there is Shadowblaze (purple fire) on the ground that all raid members must avoid and that's about it.

Here is <Paragon>'s kill video if you are interested, no commentary on how to kill it, but all of the mechanics are clearly shown via PoV swaps:

The tanks must coordinate taunts very well during this encounter. After three Break debuffs, the second tank must taunt, then the main tank must
taunt him back once the second tank reaches three Break debuffs. This must go on during the entire encounter.

Its (a lot) easier for one Tank to take all the Breaks and have the other taunt for all of the Double Swings.

Originally Posted by AdamsGaming

There are adds in phases 1 and 3 of the encounter that need to be kited by a ranged or a third tank. These adds shouldn't be killed.

These adds are CC'able and should be CC'd. They get a increased damage and movement buff the more they are. Kite a few of them if you must.

I don't see this guide getting too much use till later down the road, but its put together fairly well. However, a lot of fights could use an update with more refined strategy's and new boss mechanics.

posted on guild website might want to add what the diffrent drakes do on halfus ? but otherwise a nice guide.

“It is not sufficient that I suceed - all others must fail.” - Genghis Khan

Originally Posted by Paf

Judging by the amount of Earth Shocks cast (27), you seem to be using it too often. It is 100% the end of your priority. You perform every action you possibly can before resorting to Earth Shock. This includes hurling your boots at the enemy and writing insulting limericks to make it feel bad.

Many of the strategies need updating to apply to live. Also, couple of the strats noted (Magmaw, Conclave of Wind, Valiona, Omnotron) are "the hard way" and there are definitely easier ways of doing them (Magmaw: Don't tank spawns, Hunter ice trap/snare them and burn them down with ranged; Conclave of Wind: Start on Nature platform and switch to Frost at 75 energy--much easier to heal this way and getting adds down is simple with a 3rd tank picking up adds; Valiona: 25m there should be 3 meteor groups--1 melee, 2 ranged; Omnotron makes no mention of using all the various buffs that can be used to get the boss down much faster/easier).

I only read your halfus guide as thats one of the few bosses I made a guide on myself, and you sure missed alot of things. Not trying to be rude obviously, but you really want to make no mistakes in raiding guides.

Nefarian takes flight, and the room fills with lava leaving only three columns to stand on. Chromatic Protoypes are on top of these columns and melee should be split up between these to kill them. Chromatic Prototypes should be killed at the same time, before Nefarian hits 60% HP
because that is when he lands and goes into phase 3. In phase 2, ranged should stay on Nefarian and melee should stay on the Prototypes.
Ranged DPS must be careful here not to push Nefarian below 60% before melee kill the Prototypes, because if any Chromatic
Prototypes are left alive in phase 3 Nefarian will instantly wipe the raid with a room-wide lightning ability.

Huh? Seems like I've been playing some different Nefarian encounter. I also don't agree with Phase 1 strategy. You didn't mention nor explain Electrocute (most important ability to handle in whole encounter).
I didn't read the rest of the guide (didn't really need it), but things you wrote in Nefarian's encounter are just wrong.

I must say, after reading through this, almost ALL of the bosses have either wrong or lacking information. After writing guides for all the bosses on their pages on wowhead (and actually doing them in 10/25man), here are some of the errors...

Conclave: Rohash does not require a ranged "tank" (he randomly casts a nuke at players on the platform) and the tactic is pretty bad as well. There is absolutely no reason for the raid to stack at nezir, jump to kill adds at anshal, jump back blahblah. Stack ranged on Anshal, melee on Rohash and tank/healer(s) on Nezir. When Sleet Storm comes, all DPS nuke Nezir and move back after its over (stay bit longer if needed).
Al'Akir: Phase 1 is completely wrong (it requires EXTREME spread) both tactically and by information. Static Shock hits players in melee range, electrocute does not exist as a debuff, but as a lightning web that chains to everyone in its aoe. Phase 3 is not included at all.

Halfus: No dragon abilities/effects are listed. No indication that furious roar starts at 50%. Whirlwind was removed from beta.
Valiona/Theralion: Tactics are bit wonky (Nothing about moving the boss, wrong ways on meteors/blackout), the bosses do not change at % intervals but at timed intervals, Devouring Flames is not mentioned at all.
Ascendant Council: Nothing about interrupting Feludius cast, nothing about the damage buffs which can be dispelled, phases change at 25% not 30%, phase 2 info/tactics are off by a lot, phase 3 has no information on abilities at all.
Cho'Gall: Tactics have zero information about positioning (dragging big adds together to portal alcoves for easier small add handling), interrupting adds is not mentioned, nothing about tank switching, saying that the small adds dont cause corruption while they actually do, no mention of corrupted blood 25% debuff being dispellable.

Omnotron: 0 tactics. Extremely lacking on content.
Magmaw: Wrong skill listed as parasite spawn, wrong way to handle them (use ranged to aggro, for example frost DK in BP), no mention of tank being "eaten" during half room aoe followed by chain phase, no mention of armor debuff on tank.
Atramedes: Wrong amount of gongs (10), no info about how Modulation damage works, wrong way to handle breath (spin the boss sloooowly), no info about fire on ground, no info about sonic disc thingies.
Chimaeron: Tactics are completely wrong (You need one tank eating all the break debuffs and one off tank with 0), no info about double strike, no info about when phase transition actually occurs (2nd or 3rd massacre).
Maloriak: This is probably the most correct one, only thing wrong is that it fails to mention at all that the adds should be kited instead of tanked. In 10man this isnt such a huge issue but in 25, they hit hard enough to warrant kiting instead of tanking them.
Nefarian: I dont know where to start. This is just...wrong. On so many levels.

I do realize that these were written even before cataclysm was live based on beta, but that doesnt change the fact that you still submitted it and it even got featured on the front page. The guides contain so much wrong information that they should at least be re-written and corrected before being entered in to a contest like this. Now people will just read it as is and wonder why they keep on wiping on Al'Akir p1 in 5 seconds ~_~

I must say, after reading through this, almost ALL of the bosses have either wrong or lacking information. After writing guides for all the bosses on their pages on wowhead (and actually doing them in 10/25man), here are some of the errors...

Conclave: Rohash does not require a ranged "tank" (he randomly casts a nuke at players on the platform) and the tactic is pretty bad as well. There is absolutely no reason for the raid to stack at nezir, jump to kill adds at anshal, jump back blahblah. Stack ranged on Anshal, melee on Rohash and tank/healer(s) on Nezir. When Sleet Storm comes, all DPS nuke Nezir and move back after its over (stay bit longer if needed).
Al'Akir: Phase 1 is completely wrong (it requires EXTREME spread) both tactically and by information. Static Shock hits players in melee range, electrocute does not exist as a debuff, but as a lightning web that chains to everyone in its aoe. Phase 3 is not included at all.

Halfus: No dragon abilities/effects are listed. No indication that furious roar starts at 50%. Whirlwind was removed from beta.
Valiona/Theralion: Tactics are bit wonky (Nothing about moving the boss, wrong ways on meteors/blackout), the bosses do not change at % intervals but at timed intervals, Devouring Flames is not mentioned at all.
Ascendant Council: Nothing about interrupting Feludius cast, nothing about the damage buffs which can be dispelled, phases change at 25% not 30%, phase 2 info/tactics are off by a lot, phase 3 has no information on abilities at all.
Cho'Gall: Tactics have zero information about positioning (dragging big adds together to portal alcoves for easier small add handling), interrupting adds is not mentioned, nothing about tank switching, saying that the small adds dont cause corruption while they actually do, no mention of corrupted blood 25% debuff being dispellable.

Omnotron: 0 tactics. Extremely lacking on content.
Magmaw: Wrong skill listed as parasite spawn, wrong way to handle them (use ranged to aggro, for example frost DK in BP), no mention of tank being "eaten" during half room aoe followed by chain phase, no mention of armor debuff on tank.
Atramedes: Wrong amount of gongs (10), no info about how Modulation damage works, wrong way to handle breath (spin the boss sloooowly), no info about fire on ground, no info about sonic disc thingies.
Chimaeron: Tactics are completely wrong (You need one tank eating all the break debuffs and one off tank with 0), no info about double strike, no info about when phase transition actually occurs (2nd or 3rd massacre).
Maloriak: This is probably the most correct one, only thing wrong is that it fails to mention at all that the adds should be kited instead of tanked. In 10man this isnt such a huge issue but in 25, they hit hard enough to warrant kiting instead of tanking them.
Nefarian: I dont know where to start. This is just...wrong. On so many levels.

I do realize that these were written even before cataclysm was live based on beta, but that doesnt change the fact that you still submitted it and it even got featured on the front page. The guides contain so much wrong information that they should at least be re-written and corrected before being entered in to a contest like this. Now people will just read it as is and wonder why they keep on wiping on Al'Akir p1 in 5 seconds ~_~

Pretty much this. For everyone in this thread who has not raided, praising this guide, stop. It is completely based on beta boss fights, and incredibly out of date.

For example, he states

Originally Posted by AdamsGaming

At the pull, Halfus will immediately bind to the first miniboss and the raid must kill it immediately. So the first 30-45 seconds of the fight
are with no DPS to the boss whatsoever. After the first minion is dead, the raid needs to DPS Halfus because he is now taking 50% more
damage and the tank needs to move Halfus across the room to the emerald whelp cage which is located about where the raid pulls, if the
tank neglects to do this and the whelps happen to be the second random miniboss, then the whelps will destroy the healers and ranged
DPS before the tank gets a chance to pick them up.

Completely, terribly, and utterly wrong. Halfus doesn't "randomly choose a drake", 3 of the 5 drakes are predetermined for your instance(maybe everyones? Not sure.), and grant Halfus/Proto-Behemoth abilities. You have the choice of which drakes to release and when during the fight, and of course the whirlwind thing does not even exist anymore. This isn't even a fraction of what is wrong with the guide.

This guide needs to be revoked, this does not deserve a win in the slightest. It is completely out of date and I honestly can't see a single that about this that is accurate.

This guide needs to be revoked, this does not deserve a win in the slightest. It is completely out of date and I honestly can't see a single that about this that is accurate.

I agree. this guide is out of date, wrong and written by someone with no experience whatsoever. this guide is a blasphemy, a Blight on bibi's otherwise completely clean record. i hope bibi will choose another guide before he sends out the rewards, because this is by far the worst guide of the 20 he selected.

I'm sorry, but this guide is indeed full of misinformation and outdated stuff.
A group following the strategies listed here would maybe be able to kill the Conclave of Wind, Maloriak and Valiona and Theralion, but they would still probably wonder why the stuff going on in the fights is different than what's mentioned in the strategy. The major flaws are already stated in Netukka's post and I hope it will lead to a major overhaul of the guide, because in its current state it would only confuse new raiders.

Thanks to all the people explaining the misinformation in this guide. I understand that he did say it was written before Cataclysm launch, but I figured that it probably wasn't too off. Reading these comments makes me want to undo all that I read so that I don't confuse it later on when my guild is actually trying them. Boub... I don't understand why you chose this one to be on your front page. =(

Its nice of you to post this little guide, but your al'akir info is a bit off. P1 ends at 80%, P2 ends at 25%. You only need 1 tank as well, and having melee all the way behind the boss is def not needed.

Not hating, just pointing that out. You may want to double check the other bosses as well.